


Fever Year

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Series: Another Chance: Chronicles of DC/Pern [5]
Category: DCU (Comics), Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-03
Updated: 2013-12-03
Packaged: 2018-01-03 09:53:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1069070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the ninth year of the Pass, tragedy strikes at the colony again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fever Year

[Year 16 AL/9 of Pass, Northern Spring]

When the childcare providers noticed an uptick in their charges with runny noses, coughs, and slight fevers, no one really thought much about it. Spring would bring colds, especially up here in the North, where winter and spring had been flirting with each other, and people overextended themselves on the warm days.

It was Mairi who noticed the lethargy that seemed to be dragging the children down instead of letting them bounce back, and she wound up dividing her cramped 'teaching' room to isolate the youngsters with symptoms, according to severity. She couldn't not take them in… too much work to be done… but she could try and keep them from infecting others.

So soon after the change of the seasons and the Year's End celebration, the cold was cropping up at the dock settlement, and communication said it was even being seen down at the Southern settlements where crews had gone home, harboring whatever germs had been shared. Mairi hadn't heard if the Weyr up in the volcano had been hit, but Weyrleader David had chosen to take his wings south, to celebrate with the rest of the riders. Maybe they'd escaped, by sticking to their own.

"Red," Mairi said, as their own Simon coughed into a kerchief politely. "I think this is more than a spring cold. I feel it in my bones." The teaching room was already echoing with the sounds of other children coughing.

Red had only stopped in to check on his wife and make sure that Simon and Michael were both occupied enough... but that sound paused him in his tracks, something in it echoing, and he frowned worriedly. "I'm vet, not a doctor, but... I've never argued with your feelings yet, love, and I'm not going to start now. Beth or Basil had a look at any of them?" 

Those were the first two of the medics he could think of -- at least who were present here at Fort. Ziv and Corazon were both South, Ziv at the Dragon Caves and Corazon at Paradise. He shook his head slightly, trying to focus past the latest round of beasthold arguments and coughing children. 

"Beth told me to add some more citrus to their diet, and Basil couldn't come yesterday when I asked; he was doing the rounds of the elderlies…. OH!" Mairi shook her head. "Our older members are getting it too? But they are so busy trying to transcribe what they know that they hardly ever come by to help with the children. So I hadn't seen any of them." She looked at Red worriedly. "Please get one of them to come see the babies, please, Red? It's more than a cold if it's all over and the older ones are getting sick as fast as the babies."

"I'll go catch one or both of them," Red agreed, leaning to press a light kiss to his wife's cheek.He listened to the sound a little longer, to be sure he had it in his mind, and then headed out through Fort's warren of caves and stairs to get to the main medical 'wing'. 

When he walked in there were three people… one of Cherry's brood… waiting to be seen, and the curtain was drawn around the exam room with a worrying cough coming from within. Kimiyo Hoshi looked up at him, and her face gave away her worry. 

"You're not sick too, Mr. Hanrahan, are you?" she asked.

He shook his head in a quick negative, "No, I'm fine, but I just came from Mairi's, and some of the babies have a cough that sounds too much like what I'm hearing from back behind that curtain. If we've got something in our elders and little ones..." 

Kimiyo nodded at him. "Beth is worried, and she's trying to isolate it. Right now, we're at the stage of treat symptoms, while we determine the source of the pathogen. Mairi takes care of more of the babies in her center, correct? The best thing is to get them to drink, even fruit juice, so they stay hydrated."

Red nodded, keeping that he was more than sure Mairi knew to keep sick children drinking behind his teeth. Kimiyo was just doing her best. "I'll remind her... but do get Beth or Basil to come see the children, quick as either one can be spared for a minute?" 

"I will," she assured him. "Maybe by then, one will know a better treatment for it."

"Let's hope," Red agreed, flicked smiles at the patients waiting, and headed for his own day's work. 

+++

By midday, Red was seeing for himself how right Mairi was. Buddy Baker, who had young children, sent note by fire lizard that he and his family had all taken the cold, and he apologized, but he just couldn't bring it around the bestiary. When young Mari McCabe began coughing after helping put recycled bedding pellets down, he ordered her back to quarters.

"Everyone!" he called, getting the other vets, animal handlers, and breeders to pay attention. "The least sniffle, cough, fever, or plain listless feeling? Stay home. We are seeing too many sick, in too tight of quarters, and we need to get it stopped before it becomes something serious! So don't bring it to work! There's been flus and colds in the past that can be shared by animal, and we're still struggling to keep the ones we've got without having to nurse them well!"

He did care more for the people involved than he let on, but phrasing it that way put a professional balm on the necessity of skipping work for some of these folks.

Kim Herriot, her grey-streaked hair back in its ever-present knot, called her agreement. 'Aye, that. There're half a dozen kids sick down my wing, and some of you live with me. The last thing we need is some zoonotic pathogen getting a foothold in our beasts. We can recruit out of the healthy teens for mucking and milking and the like. Mind Red and take yourselves home if you're sick."

There were mutters but a lot of nodding. It was fast becoming obvious this was serious, and they needed to nip it in the bud.

"Thanks, Kim," Red said low to her, looking her over. "Promise me to take to bed first sign of it?"

"I'm fit as a fiddle," she said back, just as low, "but aye -- and you give me that same word, Red Hanrahan, you with your Mairi up to her shoulders in kidlets."

"You have it, Kim." He smiled at her, but there was worry in his eyes. "Let's get as much done as we can." At her sharp nod, they turned back to work, each hoping it turned out less serious than they feared.

+++++

The last thing Emily was expecting at nearly 1 am was a fairly frantic rapping at her door. She was halfway across the floor of their quarters, Pierre still mostly-asleep, before she was actually awake enough to realize that she should get more than her light sleeping gown. She turned back to get a robe, and by that point the knocking had Pierre blinking sleepily at her in the faint electric light. "Em?"

"I don't know, love. Sleep, I'll see about it," she said, quiet and soothing, and actually ran through the bedroom, office, and to the main door, tugging it open. 

She blinked at the youth in front of her, dark eyes upturned at the corners with deep brown multiple braids, trying to place him -- and figure out why he thought it was appropriate to wake her at this hour! 

He dipped a sharp half-bow, nothing that looked familiar, and said quickly, "I'm sorry, governor, but Doctor Eagles sent me. She says she needs you."

//Wouldn't wake me for less than a crisis,// flashed through Emily's mind, promptly followed by too many flashbacks of Centauri… and she squelched that. "Thank you, young man… wait a moment while I find some clothes." She ducked back into the bedroom, hastily finding a pair of pants and a work shirt. She slipped her feet into the boots by the door, and was ready to go in just a few minutes. "Alright… lead on."

The boy nodded and took off at a quick walk, heading straight down -- or at least, as straight as architecture _got_ within Fort -- to the main medical wing. Emily was rather alarmed by that; she'd expected there to have been an accident for someone important… such as Paul or Zi… that had prompted this, but surely they wouldn't have taken such figures to the public medical? Not with the colony still so shaky in its confidence in their survival chances, despite everything done so far?

More worrying was that Beth Eagles was leaning back against the wall outside the main doors, her hands showing the telltale red trace of the local antiseptic/astringent to up above her forearms, her hair half-escaped from its tight, neat bun, and her mouth set in tight, grim lines. "Thank you, Ravi," she said, and Emily's ear picked up both the strain and the attempt at cheer. "Emily, sorry about the hour. My office, please."

"Of course." Emily fretted… but Beth would tell her soon enough. She tried to push the impending doom out of her mind so she could objectively listen.

Coughing. That was the first thing she noticed as she stepped through those doors, but Beth seemed to pay it no mind... or, no. She was paying attention but focused past it. They stepped through her office doors and Beth's shoulders slumped, her breath escaping in an exhausted sigh. "I don't know what I'm looking at, Emily, but it's bad, it's fast, and as of twenty minutes ago, I have three fatalities." 

Emily's blood ran cold. "Fatalities? From a cold… not a cold, I see that… but that's all it seemed to be so far." She furrowed her brows. "Tell me what you do know, how we can help at the admin level."

For them to overcome the long journey, the sudden menace of Thread, and now to be attacked by disease? There was a sinking feeling of wondering why and how she'd ever survived the Nathi just to come to this, before her mind beat back those shadowy demons. It was a disease; it could be beaten back!

Beth pushed hair out of her face with one hand, looking across at her. "It's presenting with cough first, then lassitude, then fever... and the fever climbs so fast. We've a few we're managing to keep the fever controlled on, but, like I said. Tasha Varoskey, Edwin Jones -- both in their eighties, Emily... and Rynna Smyth's newest baby. We just delivered her three weeks ago! I can't tell incubation period yet, and our tests aren't turning up an easy viral or bacterial answer, but that cough we've heard so much of the last three days is something much, much worse.

"As far as Admin... if people are sick, don't come to work -- wherever work is, we do not care, it can wait! Also, if you're sick, report through the comms, and start taking fluids, start taking fever suppressants -- mind the dosage, those are dangerous if overused..." 

Emily permitted herself a moment of grief for the baby… a life cut off at the beginning was far more tragic to her than the ending of a long one. "Any chance that herbologist down at Omaha might have native medicines that are safer that could help you?" she asked, once she had herself in hand. "Dr. Holland's work was being lauded by Red Hanrahan, as the native plants seem to interact with the engineered intestinal parasites our animals have on a much stronger basis. Perhaps, since I am assured we all have the boron-digesting flora now, there could be hope from that corner?"

"It's possible? What time is it in Omaha, now?" Beth asked, worrying at her nails with her other hand. "Not that it matters, he'd wake up for this. I'll comm down, and while I'm at it, warn them to watch for the same signs. 

"Convince people that aren't sick not to gather, governor," she said, her voice insistent. "We've got to get this thing stopped before it can spread any farther. Those who are... they're going to need care, they can come to us. 

"And if someone in plastics can turn out surgical masks, that would help -- I hope." 

Emily thought of her own experiences. "Activated charcoal masks may be useful if plastics can't… we used those on First Centauri," she said, readying herself. "Encourage not to congregate. Get me a list of effective medicines. We'll post those, and see if many of the families can't self-medicate rather than spread it, with an eye to calling for help if it gets beyond their cope. I think… I think I will also encourage any and all to only attempt work if it is critical need, suspend common tasks, until the danger is past. We have some surplus stockpiled, and the hydroponics are working," she reminded Beth, and herself. 

The governor shook her head sadly as she looked at Beth. "We'll fight this, and we'll survive… but it won't be easy." She then paled as realization struck. "First comm is to the Weyr here, and then to the Dragon Caves!"

"Holy -- yes, yes it is," Beth nodded quick and sharp. "Thank you, Emily. I'll get you the list, and I'll get with Alec as soon as I get off the comm with Ziv." 

"Luck to you for getting the word out fast enough," Emily said, almost a prayer, despite modern scientific thought. She left from the office to go up to the Admin level, ready to buckle down and get this done.

+++++

Jakeem turned on the comm, blinking sleepily as he sat up, his dreads pushed back irritably. "Yeah, umm, Fort Weyr… OH, I'm sorry ma'am," he said as the picture clarified into the governor. 

"I know it's early, young man, but…" Emily said. "Your leaders, David and Nyassa need to be told a very important message. Are you awake enough to take it?"

Jakeem widened his eyes and nodded, even getting a pen and plasfilm to jot down notes. He was glad he had, because he almost couldn't believe what she needed him to deliver to the leaders without reading over it once more.

+++++

Leonid was not on comms when Emily contacted the Dragon Caves Weyr. The call was taken by Toni, one of their quartermasters in training. 

"What can we do for you, governor?" Toni asked.

"We have a medical situation, and I needed to call to ask all of you riders to steer clear of at least Fort and the dock settlement up here," Emily answered. "There's illness…"

"Cough and fever?" Toni asked, dreading the answer. 

"Yes, and there have been deaths."

"Deaths?" Toni asked, knowing her voice was a little thin and nervous, but not really caring. They could not lose any riders to this, when Thread already… She cut the thought off, refusing to dwell on those keening tones.

She shook her head, hard, and made herself listen close for the answer. 

"Two elders, and an infant." Emily made herself forge on. "We are encouraging people not to congregate, and all non-essential tasks are on hold. Segregation of the sick is needed, and any able-bodied people will continue on essential tasks, even if not trained for them until this ends. Medical has not isolated the cause, and is cautioning to treat the symptoms… hydrate well… and especially watch the fever. It spikes quickly. All communication should be via comms or, if needed, fire lizard messages delivered without contact. That last is a caution from the vets, in case animals can transmit this without showing illness."

Toni hissed out a sharp breath, and her blue was suddenly on her shoulder, chirping worriedly. She reached up with her free hand, caressing him, and nodded to the governor. "Yes ma'am. I'll put the word to everyone, fast as we can. Do you need us to contact Omaha, or will you? I'm assuming you already let your own Weyr know." 

"So I did, and they are on alert," Emily answered that before continuing with the rest. "Beth Eagles was going to be in contact with Omaha," she said. "I'll contact Paradise, if you don't mind contacting the ranches?" Emily requested politely. "Pass on that Red Hanrahan has not seen illness in the herds yet, but to be mindful of possible cross-species contamination."

"Don't mind at all, ma'am. I'll get them the word. Ierne Island's closer to your time zone, will you take them or do I?"

"I can handle them. Not that time zones much matter in this case. Thankfully, I doubt any of them were at the festival," Emily said softly. "Tell the Weyrleader I wish him well in keeping this illness at bay; we need all of the riders and dragons!"

"I'll do that, ma'am. Thank you." Toni waited for the governor to leave the screen, then chewed on the ends of her hair for a moment, trying to decide who to go to first. Ziv, Rachel, or the Weyrleader and Weyrwoman? 

Tact said the Weyrleader, practicality said their surgeon, and Toni wrote Ziv a note on a scrap of plas and sent Azure with it, while she headed to knock at the Weyrleader's door.

Sean stretched away from his wife at the knock; he'd actually been semi-relaxed for once, and Sorka hoped the intrusion was well-worth it. She adjusted her tunic as she stood to go get it, letting Sean plaster his professional scowl back in place. 

When the door swung open to show her Toni, Sorka was momentarily surprised, until she remembered Toni had volunteered to cover Leonid's duties while he and his family worked on their quarters. It had been a much needed, long overdue vacation of sorts, with Rosabelle on short temper of late.

"Yes, Toni?"

"The governor called," Toni said, not bothering to point out that it was the very early hours of the morning at Fort. "I sent Azure to get Ziv up, since we need him for the message I've got."

"Then we'll wait for him to arrive," she said, to forestall her husband from demanding any questions. 

"Of course," Sean agreed, though his mind poured over what could have happened that needed their medical chief and the two of them. What had gone wrong now?

"Shouldn't be too long," Sorka pointed out. "Ziv's a light sleeper."

Sure enough, it was only a few more moments before was at the door. Sorka let him in, and he glanced from Toni to the Weyrleaders, obviously confused. Toni sighed, and quickly filled in the sequence of events she'd been told, and the precautions to take, watching the surgeon more than her Weyrleaders.

Ziv shook his head. "The bug is probably something that mutated due to the necessary tinkering we've done, which is why they are struggling to find it. I agree about no congregating, Sean… it can't take root if the infection is isolated. I'd say this is likely what I consulted on for Paradise two days ago," he added.

"So we keep people apart, don't interact with sick populations, and watch for signs," Sorka said, to affirm what she was taking from the briefing.

Ziv nodded. "That would be my thought on containment and handling this... damn and blast. Well, we knew it this was going to happen at _some_ point, we were just hoping it took a hell of a lot longer." He sighed, stretching. "And I'm going to add one more thing, for you riders. I normally let you handle your people. but nobody -- including you, oh worst of my patients," he said, fixing Sean with a long look, "rides more than half a fall. Tired people get sicker faster." 

Sean did scowl for real at that, but it made sense. "All wings up then, half wings at a time," he said. "Likely staggering how they go in, but doable." He looked at Sorka. "Have the queens pass the message to watch for the sick, and stay apart. I'll have Carenath bespeak Polenth and suggest.. no, see if he already was told by his medics not to ride full Fall." He gave Ziv a sardonic look, and the medic just shrugged at him.

"I was going to, Sean," Sorka said, knowing it chafed him to have to take a backseat, but this fell under the queen's duties anyway.

He nodded, leaning back on one foot, and Toni glanced between the three of them. "If you don't need me, I need to go call the ranches. The governor said she'd call Paradise and that Beth Eagles was calling Omaha, but..."

"Go," Sorka told her, nodding as she reached for Faranth to speak to Chamuth. 

Toni dashed on out to go help with the 'phone chain' for this latest disaster, hoping they were in time. They had to be… or she didn't know if the human spirit would actually survive it all!

+++++

Alec rubbed at his temples as he looked at the safety tests on his latest batch of candidates for the fever. Two days since the first fatalities and even with precautions, that number had risen steadily.

"If the fatigue makes the fever harder on the body, how do you reduce the fatigue?" he asked out loud, forgetting that Dinah had come to read the chemistry results to help him out. She had very few sick, but was having them work in very separated fields on a rotation to keep it that way.

"The cough tires, but the cough is as much irritation of the throat as it is an attempt to bring anything up, correct?" she asked, glancing at the notes.

"Yes… oh." Alec glanced her way, offering a quick smile, before he leafed back through his notes. "The febrifuge we found is also a painkiller. So often the case, actually… but I don't think it's enough."

"Run a test on it mixed with the oral version of the numbweed? Like mixing benzocaine with aspirin, maybe, but…"

"It might just work," he agreed, preparing a solution to get it run as swiftly as possible. Dinah just turned back to the spectrograph in front of her, looking for toxicity in the numerous native plants Alec had identified as potential aids against this latest threat.

+++++

Sorka blinked in surprise as her father's Snapper popped into the air a few feet in front of her, making Faranth snort. There was a rolled bit of plasfilm in his paw, and she almost put her arm up for him before she remembered Beth's worries and she tipped her head at the table instead. Snapper made an annoyed click, but he dropped to the table and put the piece of plas down, flipping his wings to his back in a blatant, 'I'm waiting' that made her smile.

"Yes, yes, I'll get you a snack as soon as I read your message," she promised as she unrolled the plas.

Her mother's hand, not her father's, and --

She sat down hard, staring at the note. /Sorka, love, Michael's come through the fever with barely more than a sniffle and a touch of cough, but he's about to drive me off the cliff. He has more energy than any three children ought to, and with so many children sick, I just can't keep him. Brenna and Seamus are both healthy, still, but I don't want to send them when they might carry it. Can you come get your eldest, sweetheart?/

Mick had been sick.

Her firstborn had --

Blazer, Emmett, Duke, and half a dozen others popped in, landing on her shoulders and the table, Blazer scolding at Snapper for a moment before she nuzzled into her red hair, crooning, and Faranth's head shoved against her back, almost hard enough to make her stagger.

 _Rider?_ her queen's worry flooded over her, and she shook her head, forcing her emotions down.

"It's all right, loves," she said to fire-lizards and queen alike. "Mick's been sick, but he's all right now. Ma wants me to come up and get him, now that he's better."

Her daughter and second son, though... could she really make herself leave them at Fort, where there were more deaths almost by the hour?

Sean, of course, was none too far behind the others, as Sorka felt Carenath's light croon in her mind, trying to reassure her.

"Love?" he called, soft and gentle as he was when it was a personal matter. He noted Snapper, and that made him cross the room more swiftly. "What's wrong with the family?"

She turned, reaching for his hand. "Everyone's all right," she said first, "It's just. Mick caught this _thing_ \-- he's through it, Ma says, but she's so overwhelmed with sick babies that she can't handle him, too."

"Our others?" Sean asked as he used her hand to draw her into his chest. "Could put them in with our other redhead and his brat, since Roy got it from Paradise… he's not so sick he can't manage a pair more with his own." They had been so busy, and leaned hard into Mairi's willingness to handle the babies… but Sorka had missed them, and Sean knew it, saw it with every new babe born in the Caves.

"Lian is not a brat," Sorka protested, even as that thought made her actually smile a little. "Ma's worried they might carry it, even though they haven't shown it, they've been exposed to it... but Mick's over it." She paused, chewing on her lip. "But since Roy does have it, we could tuck them in with him and not worry about exposing others..."

"That was my thought on it," Sean reassured her. "Keeps the riders safe, but brings them home to someone we both trust," he told her, kissing her hair. "Mairi needs the help, and we've leaned on them long enough." He turned and looked at Snapper. "Go ahead and send word back. I'll carry the younger two… no, you will not, Sorka! You've been working longer hours than me since this hit, trying to deliver supplies where needed, and lending support with Faranth to the few that caught it!"

She frowned at him, not best pleased... but he was right, and she nodded. "All right, Sean. Let me check with Brileth through Faranth, and send Ma word."

She leaned for a marker, still in his arms, and scribbled, /Roy has it, too. We'll take all three, Ma, Sean's coming with me. We'll be there soon./

As she set it -- and a treat -- in reach of Snapper, he gave a jaunty chirrup to them, took both, and left. Sean leaned into Carenath's mind, urging him to come be harnessed, but he held his wife while Faranth bespoke Brileth.

+++++

 _Sorka wonders if we will keep her hatchlings,_ Brileth asked Roy, who had been half dozing with Lian tucked in along his chest. It brought him to a more alert stage, and his first thought was that Lian's skin seemed cooler.

Of course that might mean his fever was higher, but he didn't hear the fever hum too loudly in his ears.

 _Are they sick… wait, they were at Fort,_ Roy told his dragon, confused.

Brileth was quiet for a moment, then answered. _Sorka's dam says the eldest is too active, and Sean does not want his hatchlings in the sick place when we might keep them._

 _Of course we'll keep them,_ Roy answered, amused that Sorka thought she had to ask.

There was a pause, then Brileth came back happily. _They go to get the hatchlings._ He then quieted and reached for their own hatchling, as he had deemed Lian to be. _She is better. Her mind rests now, like her body._

Roy looked down at the biggest surprise of his life, smiling ever so gently. _Good. Wake me when they get back, Bri? I'm still feeling whipped._

_Sleep, rider… I listen._

+++++

"Mick, use the wagon," Red said, before covering his mouth against a cough. "You'll have to pull them. Mairi can't."

"Yes, Grand Da," the sturdy boy of six said, opening the seats of the wagon to put his two younger sibs in it. He buckled them into the seats with the web-belts, because it was a long walk to the courtyard. "I'm really going to the dragons?"

Red had to smile at that. "Now, Mick, you know your Da and Ma are busy, and once people are well…"

"But for now, I go?" Mick interjected.

"For now," Mairi soothed, still unsure of sending the younger pair. But if Roy were sick as well, he'd be a better choice for watching over them.

Mick beamed, delighted, and made sure Bren and Seamus were both totally secured. Then he hugged his Gram and Grand Da tight. It took a moment for him to let go, and then he picked up the tongue of the wagon to start towards where his Ma and Da would be to pick them up. 

"Be safe," Red told him, comforting Mairi against his chest. They both had a touch of it, couldn't go in the common areas, but this was Pern, and the babies would be watched over all the way down to their parents. "Leave the wagon at the cart stand; one of the youngsters can get it for us when they're able," he reminded.

MIck nodded, but he was already focused on his trip through the Fort. It was mostly empty, a few adults here and there, some teens trying to fill in for essential tasks. He knew many of them, and waved or nodded as he kept moving along with his sibs. He was going home, home to Faranth and Carenath and all the other dragons!

 _Yes, you are,_ Faranth's gentle flick of a touch agreed. So much like his Ma's voice, just like she was talking through a tunnel or something. 

_You're here!_ Mick hurried a little, but not too fast because he didn't want to listen to Seamus fussing over the bumpy ride. He had eyes only for the two dragons as he came through the open door to the courtyard, barely noticing either his father or mother at first. When he did, he looked at his dad first. "Grand Da and Gram have it, so they couldn't come."

"Oh…" Sorka fretted, but all three children looked healthy, with their mitts and caps and blankets ready to wrap on against the flight _between_.

Sean dropped off Carenath lightly, moving to hand Mick up to Sorka first, with his wrappings, then gathered up Seamus to hold in his arms, and helped Brenna get her blankets wrapped right. 

"Up you go, sweetheart," he said softly, putting her almost between Carenath's wings so that he would have room to get up with Seamus in his arm. He twisted around, looking over his shoulder, making sure that she came up behind him and caught onto his belt. "Good girl, Brenna." 

"Fly, Da?" she asked him, still unsure of this whole leaving Gram. Seamus squirmed a little; it was a warm day and he didn't like being bundled at the best of times.

Mick settled in front of his mother, running a hand over Faranth's neck before getting his mittens on. "Softer than ever, Faranth," he praised her, throwing all his love for her at the dragon.

"She should be, much as she tries to get me to oil her," Sorka said, wrapping her arm around her son.

 _Supple hide makes for quick wings,_ Faranth said to them both, brushing love over Mick's mind lightly. 

"Yes, bit," Sean agreed, "we fly. Carenath, let's go home." 

The bronze leaped skyward, followed by his queen, and both made sure to support their flightless hatchlings' minds as they blinked out of the Northern skies.

+++++

Ju Adjai-Benden let herself into Emily's office, face-mask hooked over her ears -- and waited until Emily's coughing fit had passed to move over in front of her desk and plant her hands on her hips. "Emily. Go to bed."

Emily shook her head. "You shouldn't be in here, Ju. I've got my medicine, my fruit, my water…" She started coughing again, covering her mouth with her handkerchief. When it passed, she took a moment to get her wind back, and looked up at the other woman. "Someone has to keep administration open. We have a lot of scared people."

"Someone can be Zi. Or me. Do you think you're helping anyone when they hear you cough like that? You're not. 

"Besides. You're being a bad example, when we're trying so hard to convince everyone to rest. Now go to bed so that I can go bully my husband into bed."

Emily's jaw set. "As good as Paul is, and Zi, this is more my forte of leadership," she reminded. She then had to take a swallow of her water because her throat felt so dry. "You have enough on your own plate, Ju." She knew Ju was right, but if she went to quarters and tried to rest, she'd just worry sick over the colony.

"I know it is, Em," Ju said softly, watching her with quiet, worried eyes. "But Emily... we're not back on First, and you're not as young now as you were then. Please. You need rest, if _you're_ going to beat this."

The governor opened her mouth, then shut it, hearing that solid concern in there. Was she so important? Not in her own mind, but maybe to others? "Alright, Ju. I just… I feel so useless as it is, when our medics are struggling to keep up with the caseload, running themselves right into the fever…"

"We all feel useless," Ju said, one hand running through her hair instead of reaching for Emily. "Even the medics. I know Beth and Kimiyo both do. Go on, tap whoever you're going to and get some rest. I'm going to go bully Paul into doing the same." 

Emily nodded, took a shallow breath, and ran through the administrators. Joel was out, Ezra was too… It would have to be Zi, who seemed to be avoiding it fairly well. She keyed the comm for his office, and started to speak only to break into another damn coughing fit!

Zi glared at her from the comm. "Whatever you were going to say, Em, I'm taking over -- I've had sleep and you haven't." 

Emily nodded. "Ju fussed. Call me…" she started coughing again, then continued "... if you need me."

"If I need you," Zi agreed. Emily smiled at him for that; it would take a lot, she knew, but she signed off, gathered her things and obediently went to her quarters.

+++++

The death toll was far too high was the consensus between the colony leaders. There were young children now in need of homes, but that was being handled through careful trials in families that had lost their own. 

Now, they needed to address the crisis on a community level of healing, Ju had suggested, leading them to try and determine the most fitting memorial service for the colony as a whole.

"David's willing to do a fly over, if we can organize it during the interval where Thread's not falling anywhere his wings need to be," Emily told Paul as they threw out ideas. "Sean agreed, for the South, though they did have fewer deaths."

"Perhaps a community feast, on a clear day, then, in honor of the lives lost?" Pierre offered, since the meeting was in their quarters. Emily was getting her strength back; she'd waited too long to go rest and had had a bad case of it.

"That puts a lot of work on you, love," Emily said, concerned, but he shook his head at her. 

"I have wonderful help, and much of it," he pointed out, "and I had only a mild case." 

"I'll get E -- " Paul's voice choked off, head dropping into his hand, as he remembered that Ezra would never again work his magic with the Threadfall charts. "No. I'll get Dieter to figure out when we can schedule it that all of the stakes have at least a clear window, so that the observance can be planet-wide."

Ju rested her hand on her husband's shoulder in comfort. "That would be good, Paul." She looked at the rest of them. "Perhaps our musicians know fitting music to play for the memorial speech?"

"Who will give that?" Zi asked, feeling the losses keenly himself.

"I will," Emily offered. "I know what needs to be said."

"Em?" That was Pierre, worried for his wife, but she smiled gently at him. 

Paul just quietly nodded. He'd given Naval eulogies, but Emily… she knew people better than he ever could. It was one reason they worked at keeping the Colony whole.

"We survived; I will remind them of that," Emily said softly. 

+++


End file.
